The 50 Best Metal Albums Of 2013

Deafheaven - Sunbather (Deathwish Inc.)

I'm neither proud nor ashamed of this, but I'm confident in saying I wrote more words in 2013 on the subject of Deafheaven than did any other writer -- a large number of those words coming in our May Premature Evaluation of Sunbather, in which I called the album "a masterpiece." But no matter how much I say about the band and that album, I find there is still more I want to say, and six months after writing that review, I am even more impressed by Sunbather. Initially, for instance, I considered the album's shorter, quieter tracks to be simple interludes, but my understanding of them has since evolved: Even if they are intended to serve as connective tissue between the longer, heavier songs (all of which are woven with short, quiet sections themselves), they are nonetheless elegant, and detailed, and distinctive, and purposeful. And powerful. It would be missing the point to declare "Irresistible" or "Windows" one's favorite track on Sunbather, but at any given moment it would not necessarily be wrong.

But those other songs, the longer, heavier songs: "Dreamhouse" and "Sunbather" and "Vertigo" and "The Pecan Tree" ... Jesus Fucking Christ those songs are momentous. I've read a lot of criticism of Sunbather -- e.g., it covers ground already broken by Alcest and Envy; the vocal approach doesn't mesh well with the instrumental performances; it's too pretty or unchallenging or bombastic or opportunistic or something -- but none of it seems to contend with (or care to contend with, anyway) the actual music. And no matter how intently I confront and challenge and even doubt my own notions, none of it has managed to diminish Sunbather in my estimation. I'm still blown away by the thing, thrilled by it, awed by it.

There are some neat parallels (and perpendiculars) between Deafheaven and the other band about whom I wrote more words in 2013 than did any other writer: Darkthrone. Both are duos made up of two very visible, recognizable members, and those members seem absolutely integral to their respective band's identity and artistic process. Musically, both bands start with a thing called "black metal," but from there, they bring so many other influences and ideas to the music that when it is complete, it no longer really resembles black metal. On Darkthrone's recent albums -- and especially so on this year's outstanding The Underground Resistance -- the Norwegian duo have stripped away all progressive elements from the genre they helped to create, and built a raw, anthemic, atavistic sound with ingredients borrowed from metal's earliest practitioners, many of whom have otherwise largely been lost to history. Deafheaven, meanwhile, have set up camp on black metal's lushest, loftiest terrain, and amplified the aspects of the music that borrow from or resemble shoegaze, dream-pop, post-rock, and slow-core, to the extent that Deafheaven's music at points becomes shoegaze, dream-pop, post-rock, and slow-core.

Of course, Darkthrone are the very definition of a black metal band -- perhaps the very definition of a metal band -- while Deafheaven are, at best, a new definition of what a metal band might be, or at worst, a metal band for dilettantes. Oh, I'll just say it: a hipster metal band. When I saw Deafheaven in Brooklyn on the Sunbather tour, they played to a packed room, but as far as I could see, I was the only person in that room wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of a metal band. That doesn't happen at metal shows. Furthermore, the only people I recognized at that show were either other bloggers or publicists. That also doesn't happen at metal shows. That night, that bugged me a lot, and I left, irritated, before Deafheaven finished their set, before they played my favorite song from Sunbather, "The Pecan Tree." In a very real and important way, metal, for me, is about community. And as much as I love Deafheaven, my community was not in the room that night.

To that end, I found myself oddly touched a couple weeks back when Deafheaven announced a 2014 tour supporting North Carolina metal band Between The Buried And Me. Not because I have any special fondness for BTBAM, but because I knew those rooms would be full of metal logo-bearing T-shirts, and I knew Deafheaven knew that, too, and I suspected they saw this slot as an opportunity to connect with some of those metal fans who've been suspicious of the band thus far. A crossover metal band trying to cross over to a metal audience, trying to be part of this community: I can't imagine that's an easy proposition, and I'm encouraged to see Deafheaven making those efforts, trying to build and grow, even more than they have already, and in unexpected ways.

But I digress, as I often do when discussing Deafheaven. What comes next year has no bearing on what occurred in 2013, and great music is great music regardless of who's in the room listening alongside you. Sunbather is the best metal album of the year not because it pushes boundaries or topples walls or crashes gates, but because it is a mesmerizing and absorbing and invigorating work of art, a thing that demands and deserves the passion it inspires. It is -- still, wholly, legitimately -- a masterpiece. --Michael [LISTEN]

In our May Premature Evaluation of Deafheaven’s Sunbather, I compared the album to Agalloch’s 2010 LP, Marrow Of The Spirit. In my opinion, Marrow is the best metal album of the millennium (so far), the apotheosis of what had also been, I believed, the best metal year of the millennium (so far) — perhaps a supernova moment for modern metal, in fact. The genre enjoyed very fine, well-above-average years in 2011 and 2012, too (and I presided over lists here and here attesting to just that), but they felt to me like the slow descent from the peak of Kilimanjaro. As of May, I believed 2013 would also fail to match the heights of 2010, but I was excited and encouraged just the same, by a lot of the records I was hearing, but in that moment, especially so by Deafheaven. “Sunbather is not a better album than Marrow Of The Spirit,” I wrote, “but it is the most successfully ambitious album to emerge from the wreckage left behind by Marrow.”

But as the year progressed, I found myself almost overwhelmed by the volume of truly extraordinary new releases vying for my attention: from new bands like Inter Arma and Lycus and Vattnet Viskar and Bölzer, as well as established acts like Gorguts and Skeletonwitch and Aosoth and Darkthrone. On September 17, Windhand’s Soma was awarded Stereogum Album Of The Week honors (the third metal album in 2013 to achieve that status, following Kvelertak’s Meir in March and Kylesa’s Ultraviolet in May). Also released that same day were outstanding new records from Carcass, SubRosa, Grave Miasma, Wolvserpent, Pinkish Black, Grave, and Ulcerate. It might have been the single-best release week for metal ever. It was on that day, I think, that I realized 2013 had surpassed 2010 as the best metal year of the millennium (so far). And from there, the stakes only got higher. Over the next few months, bands like Inquisition, In Solitude, Oranssi Pazuzu, and Castevet released records that could easily vie for Metal Album Of The Year honors. It was, by any definition, a boom time. It was an embarrassment of riches.

The Year That Was produced a few capital-E Events, some via bands that brought us the year’s best albums — such as Deafheaven and their aforementioned Sunbather — and some others that merely made the year’s best albums look better by comparison. Among the latter group was Infestissumam, the disappointing sophomore album from Swedish opera-metallers Ghost B.C. That band’s fantastic 2010 breakout debut, Opus Eponymous, was such a terrific smash that Infestissumam would have been a big deal (and a big letdown) even if it weren’t the band’s first release on major label Warner Bros., with whom Ghost B.C. signed for the insanely exorbitant reported sum of $750,000 last May — but that fact did add additional depths to the album’s narrative arc. Another high-profile dud was 13, the Rick Rubin-produced Black Sabbath album, the first new work in 35 years from a Sabbath lineup featuring original members Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, and Geezer Butler. Ultimately, though, 13 was more notable for the band’s choice to exclude original drummer Bill Ward from the project than it was for its songs, which were flat and forgettable. Both those albums arrived with great fanfare (and extended tours, and in the case of Ghost, um … a butt plug), but were met with mixed reviews. Neither was included on our list, and neither would have been on this list if it collected the 100 best metal albums of 2013 instead of only the 50 best. Neither was bad, exactly, but both were badly overcooked, and over-covered, and in the best metal year of the millennium (so far), they were exceedingly poor ambassadors for the genre.

Another pair of Events — these yielding much better results — were the highly publicized returns of ancient death metal legends Gorguts and Carcass, both of whom released their first new albums in 2013 after absences of 12 years and 17 years, respectively. Both represent not just successful comebacks, but artistic and psychic triumphs. Gorguts effectively ceased to exist after the 2002 suicide of drummer Steve MacDonald. The band’s mastermind and only core member, Luc Lemay, retired the name and announced he was leaving music to focus on his work as a self-taught furniture maker. But in 2008, Lemay hooked up with a handful of musicians whose careers he had helped to inspire — Kevin Hufnagel and Colin Marston (both of Dysrhythmia; Marston also of Krallice), and John Longstreth (of Dim Mak and Origin) — and reclaimed the Gorguts name. That version of the band spent five years playing together and working on new material before finally releasing Colored Sands this past September, and it was, at once, a landmark.

Carcass, meanwhile, broke up in 1996, only three years after releasing one of the most important and most successful death metal albums of all time, Heartwork, but several months before releasing one of the most reviled death metal albums of all time, Swan Song. Secondary guitarist Mike Amott had quit the band soon after Heartwork, and primary guitarist Bill Steer sort of admitted he should have done the same thing, as he was no longer interested in playing heavy metal (hence Swan Song). Bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker and drummer Ken Owen started a new band, Blackstar, playing hard rock; Steer formed a blues-based rock band called Firebird. In 1999, Owen suffered a brain hemorrhage, ending his musical career. But in 2007, a reunited Carcass built around Steer and Walker started playing select headlining dates internationally. Six years later, they went into the studio, dug up some old unused riffs, and on September 17, 2013, released Surgical Steel — perhaps the best album of their genre-defining career.

The returns of Gorguts and Carcass also tie into one of the year’s other major Events — although it’s more of a capital-T Trend — the bold resurgence of death metal. Most of metal’s great successes in recent years have been black metal-derived (such as Agalloch, and Wolves In The Throne Room, and Krallice …) or sludge-derived (Mastodon, Baroness, High On Fire …), or doom-derived (YOB, Pallbearer, Witch Mountain …), but in 2013, raw, brutal, ugly, uncool death metal ruled. There were the awakened gods (again: Carcass, Gorguts), the technical masters (Ulcerate, Wormed), the old-school originals (Immolation, Autopsy) and revivalists (Vastum, Entrails), as well as the entire “cavern-core” microgenre, which was most prominently represented by England’s amazing Grave Miasma, but included dozens of other bands playing dank, suffocated, ambient death metal. That’s not to say the genre was invisible in years prior to 2013 — or even that other metal genres flagged in comparison — but in 2013, death metal was a more dominant force than it had been since … well, probably since 1993, the year Carcass released Heartwork.

The final Event demanding inclusion here is a deeply sad one: the loss of Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who passed away on May 2, of liver failure, at the age of 49. It’s no exaggeration to say that Hanneman was one of modern metal’s prime movers. He wrote nearly all Slayer’s best-known (and best) songs, including (but by no means limited to) “Raining Blood,” “Die By The Sword,” “South Of Heaven,” “War Ensemble, and — perhaps most notably — “Angel Of Death,” arguably the single most important song in the history of extreme metal. I can’t count the number of concerts I attended in 2013 at which Hanneman was paid tribute by the band on stage, nor can I count the number of lovely remembrances and eulogies I read in the days after Hanneman’s death. Two of those were written by my good friend (and occasional Stereogum contributor) Justin Norton, who wrote Hanneman’s obituary for the great metal magazine Decibel, and soon afterward, penned the cover story for Decibel‘s Hanneman tribute issue. I was especially moved by — and honored to publish on Stereogum — Doug Moore’s eulogy to Hanneman, which beautifully illustrated Hanneman’s influence and legacy.

Doug was also involved with one of my personal favorite metal events (lowercase-e) of 2013: the launch of Stereogum’s new metal column, the Black Market, which he, Aaron Lariviere, Wyatt Marshall, and I kicked off in February, and produced on a once-monthly basis thereafter. I certainly don’t think our work here played a role in making 2013 the best metal year of the millennium (so far), but it was a joy to cover that year so closely, with such good friends. It was a greater joy still to connect with a readership that seemed to appreciate the column, and heavy music, and an opportunity to discuss heavy music on Stereogum. Throughout 2013, I was overwhelmed by the response to the Black Market. For logistical reasons, the column fell into limbo for the month of October (and technically the month of November), and during that hiatus, I was contacted on a near-daily basis by readers, through a host of channels (email, Twitter, Stereogum’s comment section) asking after the column and its future. I shared all that correspondence with Aaron, Wyatt, and Doug, and I can say without qualification that we were, to a man, humbled and moved.

This list of the 50 Best Metal Albums Of 2013 was initially intended to serve as the November edition of the Black Market, but for purposes of editorial consistency, it’s running in the second week of December, and for purposes of archival consistency, it’s not branded as “The Black Market.” But for the many readers who reached out to us, I want to make perfectly clear that this is the Black Market — same authors, same process — and assure you, too, that going forward, the column will run on the same monthly schedule we established in 2013, starting with a new edition in the last full week of December.

This list was compiled and written by me, Aaron, Wyatt, and Doug, and though there were more than 50 albums we loved this year, more than 50 albums that deserve to be included here, I think this list does a pretty good job of capturing 2013 — the best metal year of the millennium (so far). I don’t think 2014 can possibly top this, but I wouldn’t bet against metal surprising me, surpassing my expectations.

Our list kicks off here. Thanks as always for coming out, caring about this stuff, and doing this with us in 2013.

I won’t address all these types of comments individually, but will say this up here in response to the “why wasn’t [x] on the list?” queries: for whatever reason, the album in question didn’t get enough support in our balloting process. Obviously this left a lot of excellent records somewhere outside the top 50. But there were more than 50 excellent records in 2013 — it was a really good year!

This sounds like the right spot to ask, but what was up with the complete disregard of the Dillinger Escape Plan’s One of Us Is the Killer with the press this year? Pitchfork didn’t even bother to review it. No mention of it on this list. It’s a great album, but it feels like there was an agenda not to cover them at all, and I don’t understand why that is, especially since they were — until this album — a smarter crossover metal act that would get attention in these pages. I think even Decibel stiffed them on their list. Is there some shit going on behind the scenes that has them blacklisted or something? Is it Greg Pucciato’s rock star transformation into a drug user with a porn star girlfriend? I don’t get it, or maybe I just don’t get metal.

I still haev respect for those guys because they’re capable of releasing an album such as Calculating Infinity. BUT…Irony is a Dead Scene made me want to vomit. There new stuff will probably be lame too. We’ll see.

THIS. THIS. THIS! It’s a shame that DEP have been so completely ignored by much of the non-metal centric music press, especially since One of Us Is the Killer is probably one of their best and most accessible records yet. It honestly feels like something of a potential breakthrough record for them, as it still keeps much of their intense craziness intact while distilling it into some of their most concise and well-written songs yet.

Regardless, the list is still great (though KEN Mode could have been higher)

I’m probably the biggest DEP fan among the people who put this list together. Their run from the mini-LP up through Miss Machine is pretty much flawless IMO. But as they’ve become more poppy and less unhinged over the ensuing releases, they’ve ceased to move me. I respect what they’re doing; I just don’t like it as much as their older stuff.

The Gorguts album is immensely superior to Deafheaven and more or less every other album on this list IMO. I miss the days of being an extreme metal fanboy and posting on lambgoat.com/mb all day. Although not really.

No surprise Deafhaven would top the list – these kids have been creaming their pants over it all year. At least a lot of good albums, and far superior albums to Deafhaven made the list. But still, Colored Sands is the superior album this year – because no one but Gorguts can write an album like that and it is a bloody monster. I can’t say the same for Deafhaven, and I’m sure now loads of bands will be writing major scale black metal which will top next years “best” metal list here. So have fun with that.

“…I left, irritated, before Deafheaven finished their set, before they played my favorite song from Sunbather, “The Pecan Tree.””

For some reason this line hit me the hardest in your Deafheaven write-up. Ya’ll know I’m no metal fan, but I am a music fan that attends A LOT of concerts. So knowing you left a show and missed your favorite song hits me in the feelies. Especially “The Pecan Tree”, which really is the greatest song on the album.

It’s funny looking back at my comments from when the album first came out. I hadn’t even listened to the whole thing and was brimming with excitement (I hadn’t even heard “The Pecan Tree” yet). It did end up being one of my go-to summer albums, beating Yeezus to my car CD player more than once. I found myself rocking out like I was listening to Mogwai for the first time almost 10 years ago. It made my feelies feel good.

I hope you catch them again Michael and get to hear that song. Even if it takes 6 years (like how long it took me to hear Interpol’s “Stella…” when they didn’t play it to a shit crowd in Dallas at my first show of theirs… but I digress) I hope you get to hear it live some day.

Thanks again for championing Sunbather so hard! Even if it confused the fuck out of KiDCHAIR :)

(Also: How To Dress Well did a mix recently called STAY THE NIGHT #8 where he mashes up “Irresistible” with “Freak U Down” Listening to it now, it’s pretty cool.)

Thank you for putting Grave Miasma in the top 10. So many “best of metal” lists on other sites completely ignored this brutal album.

Hell, thanks for putting this whole list together and bringing metal to the indiesphere. It’s pretty fantastic coming to a site where I kind find both the new Behemoth video and the latest Morrissey gossip.

Great list, although you guys obviously don’t like clean vocals (even the SubRosa write-up is a touch backhanded). Guys, singing is OK, it doesn’t ALL have to be black, death, thrash or whatever else. There is room for bands like ASG and Atlantean Kodex too.
Itching to check out that Satan album.

Windhand and In Solitude are clean vox front to back, same w/ Uncle Acid and Pinkish Black. The new Darkthrone has a lot of clean vox. There’s some clean stuff on the Bolzer, VHOL, Woe, Sadgiqacea, and A Pregnant Light records. Lotsa clean singing! It’s definitely the minority tho.

BTW, not coming down on you guys. You know I got tons of love for what you do, Michael and you’re right that that there are a couple more melodic albums on here than I implied (although I wouldn’t put Woe of VHOL in that category), but I guess I’m just a sucker for some kinds of metal that maybe don’t get a lot of love in this day in age (Helloween and Stratovarius also had killer albums in 2013).

Carson, never thought you were coming down on us, it’s fun to talk about this stuff. Thanks for chiming in here all year.

I’m gonna take this as an opportunity to thank everyone here for the kind words shared in this comments section. I’m truly humbled by it. I’d thank everyone individually, but it would make this comments section twice as long, and break up the flow of conversation, but to be clear: I’m reading every single one of these comments, and I am fucking floored. You guys rule.

Argus was another solid record with clean singing, along with Sinister Realm. Both were solid, but not necessarily amazing… hence their absence here. I was beyond excited for Atlantean Kodex after the first album became an instant trad classic, but the new one left me a little bit cold, sadly.

I go into every year hoping for some amazing trad metal or non-terrible power metal (Blind Guardian!)–this year it came by way of Satan, and it is definitely worth hearing. Spun that on vinyl at a friend’s house this weekend and I think we had some new converts by the time it was through.

“That also doesn’t happen at metal shows. That night, that bugged me a lot, and I left, irritated, before Deafheaven finished their set, before they played my favorite song from Sunbather, “The Pecan Tree.” In a very real and important way, metal, for me, is about community. And as much as I love Deafheaven, my community was not in the room that night.”

What would bug me more is, are you really going to see the band or to be with the crowd? Seriously, who cares what people are in the crowd if they aren’t dangerous? Just go because you like the band. Leaving because of the crowd seems like a dumb thing to do.

I caught Deafheaven in LA and had the exact same reaction to the crowd. The issue with a band that’s getting sudden crossover attention from “mainstream” press sources is that you get an entire different type of audience, the type more interested in the buzz itself than the band or the actual music. LA is probably more prone to this than most places, but I assume NYC isn’t far off. A metal show thrives on a certain type of enthusiasm (even if it’s, um, misanthropic), or the sense of community Mike mentions in his writeup–the crowd I saw was more content to talk over the songs… something that shouldn’t even be possible at a metal show. I stand by Sunbather as an album, but I found the Deafheaven live experience frustrating almost entirely due to the crowd.

The Black Market became my go-to Metal reference this year, and I look forward to the column every month. Keep up the good work. For all the heady, genre-expanding exercises on the list (I’m listening to Oranssi Pazuzu right now, and can’t buy the record fast enough), most of my top favorites were more straightforward headbangers that fed my reptile brain.

It’s a shame that Integrity – Suicide Black Snake didn’t make this list. It’s better then at least a few things on here. I guess the argument can be made that they are hardcore but they delve into metal territory enough to be here IMO.

I would have also included Ulcerate, Portal, Blodsgard, Palms, and Watain.
Also, new Peste Noire album is musically quite good, but the lyrics are just so stupid that I can’t in good conscience list it as one of my favorites. Has anyone else listened to it? Any thoughts?

I spun it once off of youtube… I’m not sure how they distributed that record, but it never really popped up via the normal channels, which is why so many outlets probably ignored it. It was definitely interesting… just a wee batshit for my tastes. Definitely worth hearing, but I’m not sure if I’d pony up the bucks for that one, especially when the back catalog still exists and kicks so much ass.

Good call on Ulcerate and Portal for sure–I know they just missed inclusion here by a few votes. (I need to hear this Blodsgard still…)

It definitely is batshit. It just surprised me that it was almost ignored given how good L’Ordure à L’État Pur is. In the last few months I’ve really been delving into their back catalogue, and it’s so good (La condi hu has probably become one of my favorite black metal songs period).

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